Policy Sciences in Latin America: Academic Institutionalization, Scientific Production, and Foundational Trajectories (1970–2020)

This article examines the institutionalization of policy sciences in Latin America from 1970 to 2020, identifying three phases in its development: early translation and adaptation of ideas, institutional consolidation, and later diversification and internationalization. Using a qualitative‑historical approach combining documentary analysis, bibliometric data, and academic trajectories, it shows how Lasswell’s legacy was reinterpreted and how mediating scholars – especially Luis F. Aguilar Villanueva – shaped a regional analytical grammar linking state reform, governance, and public policy. The findings indicate that the field evolved from fragmented, imported knowledge into a differentiated space with its own institutions, publications, and training programs, illuminating how global policy ideas are translated and recontextualized in the Global South.